So many things in today's culture encourage being critical of yourself. Everything from social media to television commercials causes you to feel like you need to improve your weight, your look, or the way you live your life. You often become your own worst enemy as you criticize your performance, lifestyle, career, fitness, perspective, and achievements. Every individual will inevitably criticize themselves at some point or another. The problem becomes that, if left unattended, self-criticism can lead to guilt and a negative mindset.
When guilt and a negative mindset are your immediate thought processes, you may end up finding life unappealing or without purpose. Being self-critical and encouraging a negative attitude or guilt may lead an individual to abuse drugs or alcohol or someone who has recovered from substance use to relapse. Understanding the differences between harmful thoughts and helpful ones is important for growth and a healthy mind.
Substance use has a way of impeding uplifting thought processes and may lead to sorrow, aggression, despair, or any number of other negative emotions. The same goes for the reverse. Therefore, it’s imperative to learn to release the harmful thoughts for recovery to begin. Helpful things like remembering to write in a recovery journal, attend a support group meeting, or exercise regularly can become harmful when guilt or blame is attributed to those acts if you don't do them for an extended period.
The differences between unhealthy thoughts and hopeful ones lie in the brain's control mechanism. If your brain has been taught to think negatively about every element of life, you’re going to act more negatively about each situation that comes your way. This is not a healthy way to live life.
Even when times are tough, using helpful thoughts can help you get through challenging situations healthily. Many individuals will learn in addiction recovery to practice self-forgiveness and find acceptance. While every situation is unique, learning to grant forgiveness and realign your thoughts in a more meaningful direction can make your recovery more successful.
Practicing self-forgiveness and replacing the negative thoughts with helpful ones gives you the wisdom to help shape your future. Harmful and helpful thoughts are different by the outcomes and results they produce. Destructive thoughts will produce negative results, while helpful ones will produce positive results. When the positive elements of life seem few and far between, harmful thoughts can start creeping into your brain. It is especially important at these times to make an effort to turn your thoughts in a glass-half-full direction.
If it feels like life just throws too many bad things your way for you to ever adopt a positive mindset, you're not alone. You must understand that a happy life follows a happy mindset, and your reaction to hard times matters just as much as your reaction to favorable events. Fortunately, the research behind mindsets and harmful and helpful thoughts is ongoing and gets investigated deeper each year. Living and having a whole happy life begins with eliminating negative thoughts and allowing yourself to grow in a positive direction.
Those who struggle with substance use often experience many difficult situations and may be dealing with a co-occurring mental health concern. Most individuals with substance use disorder have negative thinking patterns that make handling these difficulties more challenging. It's all too easy to self-criticize because of these things, but this criticism only serves to make things even more difficult.
In addiction recovery, evaluate how you perceive life and what can be done to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones and address your self-criticism. When you learn to recognize the distortion negative thought processes cause, you can set yourself up for more realistic and meaningful outcomes.
Everyone must deal with a certain amount of self-criticism—it's how you know you're aware of mistakes and can push you to make changes for the better. When this self-criticism overwhelms your mindset with negativity, it can start to act against you.
Addiction can cause your thoughts to tend toward the negative and the harmful. Addiction recovery treatment can help those who struggle with substance use identify the behavioral outcomes of replacing harmful thoughts with helpful ones. Self-criticism, blame, and guilt can become a powerful emotional cocktail that only encourages a cycle of self-sabotage. Through professional treatment for addiction, you can learn to eliminate those negative thoughts and instill new healthy ones that can put you on a positive track that leads to healing. A positive mindset can open up doors of opportunity and give each individual more control over their life.
NorthStar Transitions feels substance use can critically distort one’s thought process, leading to a substance abuse risk that will impede a rational mindset. By using quality addiction recovery treatment practices to identify the root causes of substance use, individuals can learn to build healthy thought processes to reflect, grow, and change their lifestyles. NorthStar Transitions uses proven treatment approaches that identify each individual's unique needs to provide the best care. We believe each substance use addiction is different from the next, and no situation or treatment plan will be the same. Our team believes in holistic recovery and can help clients improve every area of their life. If you or your loved one struggles with substance use accompanied by a harmful thought life, we are here to help. For more information on substance use treatment options or to speak with someone who understands your story, reach out to NorthStar Transitions at (303) 558-6400.
